


Red String

by TokumeiKun



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Erencentric, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-08
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-01-18 15:30:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1433563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TokumeiKun/pseuds/TokumeiKun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It could be stretched. It could be knotted. It could be tangled. But never break.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> My OTP used to be LevixEren. But I love ErwinxEren as much as I love LevixEren.  
> I rarely see a fic wherein Levi and Erwin is both pining for Eren. 
> 
> When there is nothing of what you want, you provide it yourself.  
> After all, thirst should be quenched right?
> 
> I am hoping that I would find others who love Levi/Eren/Erwin (where Levi and Erwin aren't in any kind of romantic or sexual relationship).

**~Prologue~**

* * *

 

A whiff of earl grey awakened Levi's exhausted neurons as a small porcelain cup was placed near the edge of his table with a soft clink. With a soft sigh, he shuffled the papers neatly laid on the wooden surface and aligned it together, settling it on top of more piles of papers. He gave his nose bridge a pinch, subtly massaging it and shutting his tired eyes to let it rest for a few seconds.

"You look tired."

Little wisps of steam spiral away as Levi focused on blowing his tea, practically ignoring the one who kindly brought the boiling brew for him. His raven lashes fluttered as he took in little sips. Warm liquid slid in his throat, refreshing aroma roused his sensitivity.

"Did I brew it to your liking?"

"What do you want. Erwin."

He finally spoke, having the energy to do so. The blonde man put his mug of coffee down the same desk beside the tea cup, taking a seat on the couch adjacent to it. He knew Levi hated small talks, he likes it direct.

"I have something to talk about."

His blue eyes flickered the way it usually does once getting into business. It matched his tie that intelligently hung to his neck, contrasting the white long sleeve under his slick black coat.

"It better be important."

Levi did his signature snort, before taking another sip of his glorious liquid. Work is still piled up in front of him, and he didn't like to waste even a minute for something useless and not worth his time. He waited for Erwin's voice to reach his ear, but irritation replaced patience as the voice didn't come.

"Erwin will you quit wasting my--"

"I found Eren." 

Stern blue eyes. Large clasped hands. It was what Levi's eyes stared at with his deep grey orbs filled with shock. Questions flooded his mind. It showed in his eyes. And in one look, Erwin understood, and decided to continue talking, not bothering to answer the unspoken questions.

"He's mine."

He almost let go of the tea cup, but he didn't. Just a few warm drops spilled on his desk, and his pants. Of all the things he expected Erwin to say, that was uncounted for. His mind stirred, wondering if he should take it as a joke and laugh it off, but the blue eyes were telling him the opposite. It gleamed with truth. It shone with certainty. And glinted with possessiveness. No. Fuck no.

"How dare you." Short legs delivered long strides, the hard heels of Levi's shoe clacked dully under the carpeted floor. As soon as he can reach it, he grabbed the long, smooth fabric, and pulled at it abruptly. Erwin was tugged forward, but didn't even bat an eyelash. Calm and collected as always, despite of confrontation. And it pissed Levi off. "How. Fucking. Dare. You." The words escaped Levi's lips in an angry whisper, almost a growl. He didn’t care if it was his superior he was almost strangling.

"How dare you." Same words, different voice. Erwin articulated the exact phrase, his hand wrapping around Levi's wrist. Forcefully, he broke the raven haired man's hold, releasing his now wrinkled tie. It angered Levi, so much, that he wanted to slam his fist on those prominent cheekbones. Another man was taking Eren, his Eren, for himself. He is angry.

"Eren doesn't belong to you Levi. Not in the past. Not even now."

* * *

 


	2. Erwin Smith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erwin Smith is what everybody would call a modern prince.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally. I was inspired to continue writing because of the comments and kudos. Ah. Thank you very much. My happiness is very shallow you see.

It's a new era. A new generation. A new life. No more titans. No more walls. Freedom is apparent. 

It's a modernized world. Skyscrapers and cars everywhere. Men walked around in suits, children in school uniforms. There was job. There was school. But no more bloody war.

 

* * *

 

Erwin was born in the house of the prominent Smith family. Elite and refined, as expected of the only son and the heir of his parents reigning the corporate world, he was raised with much outstanding versatility. Piano lessons, fencing, horseback riding were a piece of cake. Be it music, athletics, and academics, every field he was a prodigy. And his sky-hued eyes, golden locks, large masculine frame lined with perfectly sculpted supple muscles, towering height and charming personality only made him more perfect than he is. The perfect man overflowing with elegance and grandeur.

He couldn’t wish for anything more on his life. He got everything he needs, and could get everything he wants. He has everything a man could wish for. Looks and charm, wit and skills. Erwin Smith is what everybody would call a modern prince.

But despite of the almost defectless life, Erwin felt something within him slowly itching to find its way out. There’s something off about his whole self. Something unexplainable, unfathomable, that takes of no shape how much he wanted to describe it with his rich vocabulary.

He found the answer, after waking up in cold sweat and shaky breaths one night. If it was a dream or a nightmare, he wasn’t quite certain.

-

_Sure it was mostly a blur of dark phantasm and horror. Giant human-like figures, not clothed, eyes reflecting a sheer joy in tearing limbs into chunks of ragged flesh, running aimlessly with thundering steps, blood spilling on the greens and browns of the earth, corpse scattered everywhere like broken toys abandoned by the owner. And there was also that heavy weight around his shoulders, as if he was carrying a whole of lot people on his back, responsibility hefted in his whole being._

_But then, there were people. People who are not familiar to him but at the same time, familiar. There was a man called Levi. There was also one named Hanji. Military Police, Scouting Legion, whatever those word means, he didn’t know. But the one that was etched in his mind was, the disheveled brown hair and bright green eyes that rivaled the forest-tinctured cloak wrapped around the slim figure of the boy. The voice called out._

_“Commander!”_

_Erwin turned around, a smile forming on his lips. The boy smiled as well, before spinning to walk on his way, the green cape fluttering and bending the waning sunlight around. And there, on his back, were wings that seemed to be taking flight._

-

Erwin clutched his right hand on his chest, hard. The boy, whose name he didn’t know of, was somewhat important to him. Not the kind of important like his own car worth of million dollars. But something like his own heart. That he can’t continue on living without it.

Did that mean the Commander was him? It did. For in his dream, or nightmare, he responded to it. But who was the brown-haired, green-eyed boy, who meant the world to him?

Erwin didn’t spoke one word about his bedtime vision to anyone. He couldn’t imagine himself talking about it with his ever so busy parents. Nor he could tell his friends, if he may consider them friends, of the particular topic. It’s not that he’s afraid of getting laughed at at how bizarre his mind is to give birth to such a dream, and further more, to be in love with a man, no. It’s not really that. He just felt that it seems wrong for these ‘normal’ people to know of it, and they are not worthy to hear any of it. Not only they’d make fun of something strangely important to him. They’d never understand it. He was sure of it.

But then, Erwin never forgot about the vision even once. He thought of it every second of the day. He would try to look for the ones who he saw in his dream, in the flow of people he passes by as he travel from home to school. He would rack his brains in the middle of the night to try and remember more of them or he would lull himself to sleep and let it circle his thoughts, in hope of dreaming the same dream again. He even painted the portraits of how vividly he can recall ‘them’. He thought it was necessary. The short man with the midnight-black hair and sharp intimidating eyes. As well as the female with the messy ponytail and glasses hiding her eyes, whom he painted with a wide smile. But what filled his sketchpad was that certain boy who called him by the title ‘Commander’.

He didn’t know why. His hands would move on it’s own and etch the perfect features of the boy down on the paper. He strangely memorized it. The mildly thick eyebrows, the thin lips, high cheek bones, natural bed head, the certain curve of those ears. But his favorite is those pair of emerald eyes. Just with those gleaming orbs, feelings of all sort is expressed. Anger, bliss, anxiety, agony. Always so intense. Erwin would find himself finishing his art, only coloring those eyes and leaving everything else black and white. A smile would appear on his lips as he chooses the same shade of green on his palate, and blend it with a few light blues.

By the time Erwin is in senior high school, his room is full of paintings of that certain boy. Close up of the fac, half and full body, his portraits hung on the four walls of his room. It has gotten to the point that it got his father’s attention, and he couldn’t formulate an explanation. An obsession for an unknown boy is unhealthy and negatively weird, Erwin thought as he waited for his father’s reaction, but he was only looked at blankly and dismissed. It wasn’t brought up to dinner at that night, and Erwin was able to breathe at ease.

Secretly, Erwin is trying to look for the little pieces of his unsolvable puzzle. Progress was slow but certain.

For instance, he discovered that the people and him in the dream were soldiers. They fought for something that they strongly desire. And the giants were the villains. Small but important details.

Short dreams would sometimes visit him on random nights, always knocking him out of sleep in a trembling and breathless state. But Erwin considered these moments crucial and extensive in his life.

 

* * *

 

“Levi!”

Erwin couldn’t help himself from speaking the name as he stared on the blur of black that passed right in front of him while walking in the university halls. But he was even more shocked when the person he called responded to him with a ‘who the fuck are you why do you know my name’ look. As soon as the deep cobalt eyes saw him, his questioning look immediately turned into a knowing one, as if he could recognize Erwin the moment they first met.

 

Erwin didn’t have to think twice. Quickly and forcefully, he grabbed the man’s arm, while giving him a longing stare.

 

“Erwin..”

 

His voice was deep, blunt, and ever so coldly familiar. It is Levi.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize if nothing seemed to happen in this chapter. Damn what am I doing. 
> 
> And I have been thinking. The rating is going up on the incoming chapters. I think.
> 
> Thank you for reading. Criticisms are welcomed as much kudos are. And I would love to hear ideas and suggestions as well!


	3. Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Old friends crossing— colliding paths once again in a new lifetime.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At last. I made something happen.
> 
> (Beware of lethal typos)

_-_

_He stood in the middle, on an unending circular field where countless people walked aimlessly around him. He stood in the middle, where he could watch each person pass in front of him, and disappear on the blur of other people that kept moving and moving. He stood in the middle and tilted his head upwards, the white feathery clouds swirling in loose spirals beyond the vast skies._

_Gray. That’s how Levi views the world. Everything is an intermediate hue between black and white. The sky is ashen. All that his sight covered is encompassed by black and white.  Everything is colorless. Except for one._

_Red._

_A string, tinctured by a bright hue of blinding red, is tied on the pinky of his right hand. The strand ran from his hand down to the ground, and endlessly flowed towards the gray blur of the moving people. Levi followed it with his eyes, tracing the wavy line of red that didn’t move an inch despite of the dry breeze that blew occasionally. It just lied there on the ground motionlessly, proud of its blood-like tinge._

_-_

Levi’s midnight-black lashes fluttered open, revealing his dark pair of eyes that glinted with a light orange flicker from the dim light. Raising his hand up to his line of vision, he observed the lines that ran along his palms, seeing it as red for a moment as the vivid visions that throbbed on the back of his consciousness reminded him of the familiar color. He folded his fingers, leaving only the smallest one standing up. Twisting his wrist about, he scrutinized his pinky with slightly disinterested eyes, as if looking for something that is not there, but should be there.

 

“…”

 

Levi bit his inner cheeks and tried not to say the name he wanted to say. It was funny how hard it is for him to call a certain four-letter name.  The cozy silence of the dawn enveloped him but failed to lull him back to sleep.

 

Knowing that the chance of gaining more wink of sleep is unlikely, Levi got up from the warm comfort of his bed and proceeded to the kitchen. He prepared a cup of coffee for himself, and enjoyed the humming of the machine as it sputtered just the right amount in his favorite mug.

 

The coffee was dark. It reminded Levi of the unknown. Just like everything in his memories. There are a lot of things that are embedded in his mind. Important things, like a whole different world apart from the one he is living in right now. There were people as well, but are not among the ones he knows.

 

Levi blinked after he chugged down, the white bottom of the mug surprising his eyes and reminding him that he already drank the last drops of the warm liquid. He shrugged the thoughts off and decided to get ready and go to university early.

 

He locked his apartment door behind him and went down the elevator. It was a nice day, but the fact that he had been awake since 3 am didn’t make it brighter. And, something seems out of place. It seems like something is going to happen.

 

 

With heavy stomps, Levi marched on the halls while blinking all the time. Lack of sleep takes a toll on his eyes, and only worsens his always ‘bad’ mood.

 

“Levi!”

 

He abruptly stopped in his fast strides and turned around, ready to give his disturber a piece of his mind. His lips parted to let out a long string of insults but no voice came out. The azure eyes that shone bluer than ever clashed with his own deep onyx as a hand strongly grabbed him and made him turn around, almost dropping his books in hand. The sun shone above the towering figure of the man, every strand of those golden locks glittering with even more aurous gleam. The black haired man felt his gut lurch, as the man that stood in front of him became a precious friend reunited with him in a one blink of a second.

 

“Erwin..”

 

The bright blue eyes smiled along with the man’s red lips as his name got called. He stepped closer, making the shorter man tilt his head up even more, trying to make eye contact. Erwin smiled at the closing distance but Levi was not amused of their height difference getting more emphasized by the harmless action.

 

“You are such a fucking ass Erwin, even in this whole new shit of a lifetime.”

Erwin burst out laughing from Levi’s greeting. Sure, he knew that Levi has a stinging creativity with his tongue when it comes to his choice of words, but those words are just so unexpected to be heard on such an unexpected meeting. They met after who knows how many lifetimes, and it definitely didn’t cross Erwin’s mind that those would be Levi’s fancy from his vocabulary.

 

Levi snorted as his long-time friend continued on letting out a genuine laugh. He gently fixed the little wrinkle on his white sleeve, and crossed his arms as Erwin’s merriment dies down into chuckles and finally stopping. He snorted one more time, cursing how Erwin still appeared to be such a polished man despite of the sudden chortling, in the past and even now.

 

“That. I didn’t expect that.” Erwin stated after clearing his throat, composing himself once more but smiling, his eyes still somewhat laughing from Levi’s words and their meeting.

 

“Don’t tell me you were expecting me to act like a neurotic drama queen.”

 

“No. I’d prefer that greeting earlier.” The blonde man tried to contain another wave of chuckle that bubbled in his chest as they started walking aimlessly in the halls.

 

Levi snorted at the remark. He gave Erwin a glance, arching a brow as he trailed his eyes from head to toe. He was sure he somehow saw little sparkles around the man, as he literally radiated with perfection. Levi also noticed that he felt pairs of eyes watching him, finding out that they’re actually looking at the man beside him.

 

“So I guess you’re a prince boy this time around.”

 

Erwin didn’t even flinch from his scrutinizing pair of eyes— Cunning as ever. Looks never faltered Erwin even in the past be it the eyes of the admiring children when they paraded the streets, or the malicious looks they received from the people they protect that never seemed to have appreciated their efforts, the pair of orbs of the filthy pigs dressed as nobles, the sharp leer of their fellow soldiers, and the blood-curdling dirty stares of the human-devouring giants. Erwin is always imperturbable.

 

“Prince you say. Just an only son of business tycoons.” Erwin chuckled as Levi clicked his tongue after being investigated all over with his midnight-black sharp eyes. The two had just stepped out of the gate of their university, and Erwin turned his head to look at the buildings behind them. “Weren’t you running late for something earlier? I know we have a lot to catch up, I really do want to keep talking but I don’t want to impose.”

“I’d rather have a tearful ‘catching up’ than spend three hours listening to history crap.” Levi walked on ahead as if signaling Erwin to follow his lead, not even giving the buildings a glance. “Well that is, if that’s not going to ruin your perfect attendance, Prince Smith. Oh fuck. I hate your name.”

 

“No, it’s fine. I’m not really particular of my attendance, and I have no problems on catching up with lectures.”

 

“Smart-ass.”

 

Erwin chuckled again, finding every word Levi spoke funny. He indeed missed him, and happiness and excitement just overwhelms his every fiber knowing that Levi seems to remember a lot about their past, analyzing his words from earlier. Erwin asked Levi what’s wrong with his name, but Levi just irritatingly shrugged and shook his shoulders at him, saying it’s nothing.

 

Just as their heels clacked on the concrete sidewalk that leads to a busy street filled with different stores, cafes and various kinds of restaurants, fast stomps reverberated in their ears from behind. They brushed it off, but it bothered both of the men as it got louder each second passed. Both made an unspoken decision to stop form their tracks and turn around, a woman with messy brown pony tail who’s already leaping— pouncing for them greeted them with a sharp wind from the fast dash.

 

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! It’s— You! It’s really the two of you!” The familiar squeal of a voice rang on the men’s ears as they lied on the same concrete where the soles of their shoes were rubbing earlier, after they landed on their back with a loud thud. The said woman’s hands were hooked on both of their necks, pulling the both of them to such an ungraceful fall as she landed in the middle face first.

 

“Hanji!” Erwin called out, speaking what is on Levi’s mind as well, as he recognized the woman who was emitting a sound between laughing and crying with a runny nose, her sweaty face pressed and a pair of glasses painfully crashed under her chin, the frame horrible deformed.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe I'm actually successfully updating a multichapter story. I'm so glad that I finally made something (at least, right?) happen. It's all because of the feedback, even if it's just a handful, that I am inspired to write more. Knowing that there are some people reading this makes me motivated to write even if I do it just bit by bit due to life shits.
> 
> And anyway. I hope nobody died from the typos I made. I just suddenly had a surge to write (I dunno it comes randomly in the most ungodly hours) and I decided to post it right away because it's pretty late when I did this and I have classes (fucking summer classes) early in the morning. I basically had no time to check it, and I'm also leaving for the weekend because I'm going to attend a three-day con. *laughs* But I promise that I shall proofread this once I get my shits done.
> 
> Thank you very much for reading all the way through here. I deeply appreciate it. I hope you're able to enjoy my crappy story.
> 
> Also, please don't be shy. I'm willing to hear suggestions and as well as criticisms! I'm an introvert yes but I think I want to make friends around here. I just. Yeah. I'm an awkward weirdo though so.... Bye.


	4. Conflict

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hanji knows a lot of things, but thinking of the right course of action when two of the closest people to her are fighting for the first time is not one of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Recently, I've been able to write again so I am both excited and in a haste to post the progresses I've made in my stories and update them as soon as I can. 
> 
> So please do beware of my lethal typos. 
> 
> I've updated and added some new tags, and will be adding more if necessary as the story unfolds. (same goes for the rating as well)
> 
> Also, just a heads up again that the last chapter of this fic of mine was from three years ago, so there is a high possibility of the way I wrote this chapter is way different from the last one. I couldn't really tell if it's for the better or worse, but personally I think I lost my touch. ;;;
> 
> But still, I hope you will still enjoy reading.

“Umm.. Guys? Did I miss something?”

 

An uncomfortable, contrived smile was glued on Hanjis’s face while her eyes shifted back and forth the two figures in front of her with much confusion. She had just walked all the way from the Research and Development Department building to bring a few documents requested by The Legion Inc.’s Vice President of Financial Department , only to find herself in a room blanketed with perturbing silence.  In front of a couch situated on a wall with huge glass windows, her two best friends slash colleagues stood face to face, their eyes locked in a skirmish of enraged glares.

 

“Levi,” Using her index and middle fingers, Hanji pushed her glasses back and cleared her throat. “Here are the documents you requested from the R&D.” She said with a jolly voice and held the stack of papers wedged on her arm with both hands, extending it to Levi, hoping she would be able to steer the atmosphere away from a foreboding fight. “I even brought it here myself.”

 

Upon looking at Levi closer, Hanji noticed how rigid his frame was. His shoulders were especially stiff, his fists clenched in a death grip that almost turned his knuckles white, and his eyes were wide open, blatantly accusing, the granite-hued orbs unusually dark, its silver flecks that gleams whenever light strikes it concealed by an inky blanket of… is that rage?

 

Beads of cold sweat started to form on Hanji’s temples. Levi’s temper is no stranger to both her and Erwin. He has always been cantankerous and snappish. His personality’s core is fundamentally made of straightforwardness enveloped with numerous, thick layers of volatility, sarcasm and irritation, perfectly pieced with a flamboyantly offensive vocabulary. Contrary to his prickly demeanor, he almost never lost his composure, consistently calm and always handled himself in a vigilant manner. For him to get riled up like this, to get extremely provoked to the point of allowing his tough exterior to be on the verge of crumbling, to let his raw emotions seep through the crevices of his shell.. This is bad. This is seriously bad. Levi looked like he might snap any second now. He almost resembled a threatened wolf. His aggravation was so intense that it can be felt in the air, and one move, action or word that could rub him the wrong way might make him explode.  And there’s just no guessing what he’ll do.

 

Hanji almost whispered Erwin’s name as he looked over his direction, her hazel eyes searching for refuge in those blue spheres.  It has always been this way. It’s just how things went ever since what she can remember from their past lifetime. Ever since that one fated day of their reunion in this lifetime, through their college days, on the day Erwin declared he that he will build a company that will stand on top of the corporate world with them, until today that they are living Erwin’s dream. Whenever Hanji found herself in a situation, that she might or might have not caused, where she can’t handle Levi’s mood anymore, she’d always run behind Erwin’s back. Erwin has always been the arbitrator between her and Levi’s shenanigans. He’s the only one who has the ability to talk Levi out of punching the lights out of Hanji, whenever she, most of the times, purposely does something stupid to piss the shortest of the trio off

 

But not today. The shrug and the apologetic smile she usually expected didn’t come. She looked through Erwin’s eyes, but she couldn’t see anything. Hanji, for the first time, witnessed the clear, translucent sapphires turn surprisingly murky. She tried to search for a trace of the usual kindness in those azure depths, but she couldn’t see anything other than sheer hostility.  It was only then when she realized how tightly Erwin’s jaws are clenched, and his entire frame braced, ready to charge whenever. The collar of his crisp, white shirt that normally hid under the slick black suit were in disarray, the wrinkled blue tie messily hanging out of his coat. It was baffling. Hanji never thought she would ever see Erwin so vindictive.

 

Hanji swallowed the sourness forming in her mouth. Her palms are sweaty. Her heart is beating rapidly. And her mind is empty. Erwin and Levi are fighting, and this is all just new for her. As far as she can remember, never once did she see the two clash heads together. What should be done in this situation? She doesn’t know. She has no idea, this has never happened before.  But she needs to do something, anything, for the tension is not subsiding. The air is becoming heavier and more suffocating, and it just seems to get worse by the second.

 

A loud bang and a clutter of porcelain snapped Hanji out of her thoughts and sent the piles of papers in her hands flying in different directions, together with all the thoughts that have been swirling in her head. Shaken, she looked back and chased the blur that passed by her and saw Levi stomp his way out of the room, followed by a loud slam of the wooden door. Startled, Hanji stared at the door for a few seconds, not knowing what to do next.

 

The rustling of papers made her redirect her eyes to Erwin, who is now picking up the fallen documents. Cautiously but with haste, Hanji crouched to the floor and swiftly grabbed the papers scattered around the carpeted floor.

 

“Hanji.”

 

Truth to be told, Hanji was reluctant to look at Erwin. It was a little scary to look at his eyes and see that foreign, threatening gaze again that almost made her think he wasn’t the Erwin she knows just a little while ago.  She peered at the man crouched in front her warily through the chestnut locks falling over her eyes, and cannot help letting a quiet sigh go when the familiar clear and calm blues she always recognized were back.

 

“I’m sorry you had to see that.” Erwin handed the last of the papers he collected off the floor to Hanji, breathing out as he sees her peering at him with so much questions in her eyes. 

 

“You guys were fighting?

 

“…”

 

“Seriously? The two of you? What happened Erwin? You never.. I was really— He, Levi—”

 

“How much do you remember, Hanji?”

 

Hanji furrowed her eyebrows and snapped her gaping mouth shut as she watched Erwin pace towards the large glass windows, his gaze far off to the skies. She quietly stared at his towering frame, and watched him fix his roughed up clothes. She almost gasped because for a moment there, an image of Erwin, in his brown and white combat garbs, fixing his bolo tie overlapped her vision.

 

Hanji blinked the last of her fleeting mirage and sighed. “My memories from the past are kind of fuzzy, but I remember a lot.”

 

“A lot?”

 

“Yeah. Just like how you and Levi were almost never in bad terms.”

 

“That is true.”

 

“You both had me scared back then. What kind of thing is it that I couldn’t guess that could make you and Levi… I don’t know, berserk like that?”

  

“Humanity’s Hope.”

 

Hearing those three words felt like taking a punch for Hanji that left her an awfully strong taste of déjà vu. Vivid images from the past flashed inside her mind. Of the gigantic, looming walls that were encaging the cities. Of the days they spent planning and strategizing in the empty archaic castles. Of the huge terrains of green and brown that they breezed by on horses and seemed to be endless. Of Levi, being someone regarded as the strongest, feared but respected. Of Erwin, their commander, overwhelming with charisma and was born to be a leader. And of the bizarrely-green eyed soldier they hailed as Humanity’s Hope.

 

“Eren?”

 

Erwin stared back at her, the fondness in his soft gaze triggering yet another chain of evocative images.

 

* * *

 

_Eren._

 

_Eren was intriguing. Hanji honestly thinks so. It wasn’t just because of the various experiments she had done to his titan fused body. The young soldier’s raw human core itself is a pandemonium. He has a kid’s stubbornness and a righteous man’s sense of justice. He was turbulent and impulsive, but at times delicate and faint-hearted. What Hanji found most gripping about Eren, is how his myriad emotions were all reflected in his astonishingly jade orbs, taking forms in different shades of green. Interestingly enough, Hanji is not the only person who was fascinated by Eren’s existence._

_Humanity’s Strongest and Humanity’s Hope is quite the ideal pair. As far as Hanji remembers, after Levi declared taking responsibility for Eren, the two were always seen together. It must be because of her perceptive  nature, that the way how Levi was always heedful of Eren, the way Levi’s voice sound a little bit less apathetic when speaking to him, and how Levi’s touches seemed to linger a little bit longer than necessary never escaped her curious eyes. And it’s not like Hanji doesn’t understand why Levi didn’t went out of his way to hide the exclusive tenderness he had for the brat, for those little ministrations can only be seen by those who are keen enough._

 

* * *

  

That’s why Hanji is taken aback beyond reason from the truth he can read in Erwin’s eyes, or more accurately, the truth that Erwin lets her read from his eyes right now. At the same time, she feels dumbfounded and partly disappointed that it slipped past her. She was one of the people who are closest to him. She was entrusted by Erwin to be the next commander of Survey Corps in line. They both held each other's paramount trust, as much as they did with Levi. And yet.. How did she not notice?

 

“Did you really think I desperately wanted Eren’s safety, in exchange of an arm and my life, just because of the burden of saving humanity from the brink of extinction?”

 

“Erwin… you..”

 

Erwin only responded with a mellow smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've refreshed my memory, ideas and emotion for this fic by reading the earlier chapter but honestly, the notes (beginning and end) I wrote two years ago are giving me a massive cringe. (bec I was kind of weab ahahaha)
> 
> But seriously, I'm all fuzzy-wuzzy-giddy about this story again. My thirst for Erwin > Eren < Levi is still burning hot like hell, and like the summer here in my place. Oh and as you can see, the POV is generally third person, but it kind of switches focus from one character to another every chapter, and this time the focus is on Hanji. 
> 
> I dedicate this chapter to the people (if there's any) that have been waiting for the continuation of this story. Thank you for reading up until now.


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